solstice: or light, fruit, and the losing of a tooth

 Much of our solstice passed as above, which Dan kindly captured for us.  We're reading Juniper, the prequel to Wise Child by Monica Furlong, which we read this year and loved. All about the making of a healer.  We took the book along on our solstice walk at The Ridges, as well as fruit and nut treats we had prepared for the animals.

The rain held off for us till the end of the hike. It was unseasonably warm, but not very sunny (not wanting to complain here, but if it's not going to winter, couldn't it be sunny?).

The girls loved playing fairy for the bird and the squirrels.  We often see deer up here too.

Up at the peak we parked ourselves on a log and read a bit, and I gave the girls small solstice gifts I'd made.  I am cringing a bit over the raggedy, raggedy old sweatshirt in these photos, which used to jog with my dad and then came to live with me and then Dan and now Eliza has nabbed it much to my chagrin, but she's right - it's comfortable, and this girl is all about comfort.  The scarf jazzes it up a bit, doesn't it (humor me)?

And then, mid-apple, Ani yelped and there on her finger she was balancing her first tooth. First tooth!! Wow. She was so excited...We had sewn a pillow with a pocket for her tooth just last week, and - isn't it interesting how different two kids can be? - she let it be known that she had no need for her teeth (much to Eliza's horror; she wrote the tooth fairy a note, explicitly requesting that she leave that and any future teeth for her to keep), and hoped the tooth fairy would take it away and leave her a little something.

Our day was so peaceful - once we got home we had Papa to hang out with, and everyone just enjoyed the day together and apart (more elving to do, you know - see below).

("Keep out" (Please) Girl at work - if you are Dad com in and if you are some umazing thing from a book or something I thingk I would like to say HI!  P.S. Dad is not aloud to com IN!)

Hope you all are enjoying these days of outer darkness and inner light...